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Melbourne (Australia)
by tree568
Melbourne is a great place to eat, but if you have only just arrived, the question is where to go to eat, preferably on the cheap and well. Melbourne is organised, when it comes to food, geographically. Just to the north of the city is Lygon Street. This has a lot of Italian restaurants. My favourite is a small cafe on the west side of ... Lygon street, called Ti'Amo. I can recommend them for wiener schnitzel (hardly an italian dish, but they make it great), chinotto, and chocolate mousse. Just off Lygon Street, on Faraday Street, is Brunetti's. They are fantastic for coffees and cakes. This isn't food, but on the east side of Lygon Street, north of Faraday street, is the cinema Nova. They have cheap movie days - it used to be Mondays, - and show good quality art house style movies.
Going north of the city (take the no 19 tram from Elizabeth Street, you go through Brunsiwck and then on through Moreland up to Coburg. These are all inner city suburbs (Coburg is 9km from the city). This area is known for its Turkish, Greek and Middle Eastern food. The A1 bakery, about half way up Sydney Road, on the west side of the road in North Brunswick/Moreland has THE best meat pizzas ever. Just wonderful. Very cheap, you can eat them there - they have a few tables.
Also in Sydney road, on the west side of the road, but more back towards Brunswick, is Alaysa, a Turkish restaurant. definitely worth a feed if you fancy Turkish food.
If you fancy coffeee and cakes, in Coburg, on the west side of Sydney Road, just before Bell Street, i.e. where all the shops are, there's quite a good Greek coffee shop.
For pizza, I recommned Blue train cafe, on the south bank of the Yarra river, in the CBD. They do really yummy wood fired pizzas.
For Chinese/Malaysian food, head for the CBD, around Little Bourke Street. There's a place I could recommend - Old Town Kopitiam, 195 Bourke Street, mainly because it sells Ice Kachang, a really delicious, but very sweet, Malaysian dessert. The food is okay, some of it, like the Char Kway Teow, is pretty good, but I can't say I thought much of the service. Still, cheap is cheap, and I guess you get what you pay for.
Going to the East of the city, along the continuation of Victoria Parade, you get to Victoria Street, North Richmond. This area has a lot of Vietnamese eateries. I can't think of one that stands out in particular, but one dish I can recommend is beef noodle soup. And it's an interesting place to just wander around.
At the northern end of the Lygon Street shopping centre, if you turn right (east) onto Elgin street and walk for a couple of blocks, you come to a fantastic Lebanese restaurant called Abla's. This is THE best Lebanese food I have tasted, anywhere. Not too expensive either. But a word of advice - pace yourself. The food is very more-ish and filling, as in long after the event. So go there when you are really hungry.
For western style food, I recommend Smith Street, Collingwood (just to the north east of the city) and Brunswick street, Fitzroy. Cafe Fitz is a great place for brunch - it does great vegetarian full breakfasts. On Smith Street, the Soul Food Cafe has very good and cheap vegetarian food.
For fish and chips, takeaway, I recommend Parade Seafood, on Queens Parade, in Clifton Hill or South Melbourne fish and chips, in Carendon Street, South Melbourne. Both of these fish shops are also fish mongers. They cook the fish fresh, and will grill, rather than deep fry it, on request.
For fresh food, the Queen Victoria market is definitely worth a visit. It's open every day except Mondays and Wednesdays, and takes up a whole block, on the west side of Elizabeth street and the south side of Victoria Street. There's parking, if you are driving. I recommend a visit to the deli hall. It's great if you fancy just byuying ingredients and having a picnic somewhere.
Talking of Queen Vic Market, if you fancy self catering, I recommend the Hotel Ibis. Quite reasonable room rates and very close to Queen Vic market. In case there is more than one branch, the one I am thinking of is located on Therry Street, which forms part of the southern boundary of Queen Vic Market. The hotel is on the other side of Elizabeth street, i.e. Therry Street crosses Elizabeth Street.
To get to all of these restaurants, the best way, if using public transport, is by tram. I recommend getting a weekly met card, which allows you unlimited train,tram and bus travel for seven days. There's a metshop on Swanston street which sells these. They are also available at the larger stations, like Flinders Street, at the bottom of Elizabeth street. They are worth the investment, and much better than buying daily tickets.
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